There will always be those who are easily seduced by the offer of wealth and unlimited power. But one of the lessons we can glean from an unflinching look at history and human nature is that power-lust inevitably trumps greed. The power to harm others  and to harm others without consequence - is irresistible to a profoundly evil subset of humanity. Real trouble begins when such people acquire power.

So heres a bold assertion that many of you will dismiss out of hand: there are those in government - and those who seek control of your government - who simply want you dead. They would kill you if they could get away with it. Why? Because you are in their way.Failing that, they would settle for taking everything you have if they felt that they could do so without being held accountable. They would use the apparatus of the state to censor your speech, punish you for your politically incorrect thoughts, confiscate the fruits of your labor, seize your property, render you helpless and defenseless and in the end, dictate the very terms of your existence if they could do so with impunity. These are killers without conscience. We can come up with a long list of those whose outlook regard humankind as little more than chattel, but there are four individuals whose ideas connect the totalitarian dots in some interesting ways. They have a history and the ideas that animate them have a pedigree.

Karl Marx, father of modern communism,writing in the mid 1800s,described a world in which the central dynamic was purely economic. For Marx  and all those who followed him - human beings are things - merely the bricks and mortar from which a new utopia would be built. For Communists, human lives were  and still are  disposable. The values we live by - individual conscience and the rule of law - are obstacles to be overcome on the way to utopia and the New Socialist Man.

Sigmund Freud was the father of modern psychiatry, a cocaine addict and a suicide. To Freud we were little more than primitives ruled by our sexual impulses. Our civilized personae, Freud believed, is little more than a thin veneer, easily discarded. Freuds ideas regarding human nature sowed the seeds of the family-destroying sexual revolution of the Sixties.

B.F. Skinner, an American psychologist, author, inventor and an advocate for "social reform" was born at the turn of the 20th century. Skinner's theory of behavior essentially reduced human beings to mere stimulus-response mechanisms. Skinner was also an advocate of scientific social planning and the use of operant conditioning in the raising of children. In his work, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Skinner suggested that a "technology of behavior" could help to make what he characterized as a better society. To achieve that end, we would have to accept that independent moral choice is not the driving force of our actions. Ultimately, and in Skinner's view, we would be made to accept that idea - or any other idea the State deemed appropriate. Note that Skinner's ideas had and continue to have a profound effect on American education.

Freud, Marx and Skinner were atheists and all assumed that religion, the impulse that moved men and nations, the source of our notions of right and wrong - was a fantasy and always had been. And the common thread that runs through these men's ideas is the dehumanizing of humanity - the reduction of our hearts, minds and souls and all of our aspirations to something that can be either eradicated or molded to suit the states ambitions.

But it took another philosopher to highlight and to put into play one of the most destructive ideas to emerge in modern times.

Friedrich Nietzsche was also an atheist. But he saw God not as an invention, but as a casualty. He wrote in 1886: "The greatest event in recent times - that 'God is Dead,' that the belief in the Christian God is no longer tenable - is beginning to cast its first shadows upon Europe." The Christian God, he wrote, would no longer stand in the way of the development of the New Man who Nietzsche said would be beyond good and evil. Nietzsche knew that in Europe, the decline of religion as a guide to conscience and morality would leave a huge vacuum.

Who or what would fill that vacuum?

Nietzsche thought that the most likely candidate would be what he called the 'Will to Power,' which he felt offered a better and more persuasive explanation of human behavior than either Marx or Freud. In place of religious belief, there would be secular ideology. The very concept of good and evil would be discarded as the product of weak and inferior minds.

But above all,Nietzsche believed that the Will to Power would produce a new kind of messiah, uninhibited by religious sanctions, without moral restraint of any kind, and with an unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind.

Let's say that again: the Will to Power would produce a new kind of messiah, uninhibited by religious sanctions, without moral restraint of any kind, and with an unappeasable appetite for controlling mankind.

And how did that 'will to power' express itself in our times? Jean-Francois Revel, writing over a century after Nietzsche, said of the Europeans in particular,

"It was they, after all, who made the twentieth century the darkest in history; it was they who brought about the two unprecedented cataclysms of two World Wars; and it was they who invented and put into place the two most criminal regimes ever inflicted on the human race - the pinnacles of evil and imbecility achieved in a space of less than thirty years."

If we have learned anything at all from the sad and sorry history of the previous century, it is this: whenever and wherever a government assumes the power to violate your fundamental rights to life and liberty, those who wish to strip you of your rights and claim your life as the property of the state will sooner or later gain control of the apparatus of the state. And they will use it, as I have noted above, without restraint or moral considerations of any kind. Regardless of the scope of that authority, they will exercise it to its fullest extent. If that authority encompasses the power to kill hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people, sooner or later, these killers without conscience will make the fullest and most horrible use of it. The history of the 20th century bears stark and irrefutable witness to this fact. The record is crystal clear in this regard: 'state actors' will use and abuse whatever power and authority they have, to whatever extent they can, and they will actively seek the means and the opportunity to do so.

Those who are driven by the will to power typically disguise their intentions under the guise of 'achieving the greatest good for the greatest number' or social/ economic justice. They may claim that they are 'doing the business of the people' or that they are acting according to 'the will of the people'. 'It's for the children,' you know. When it has come to creating the 'New Socialist Man,' those who advance such arguments remain untroubled by the oceans of blood they would have to spill and the mountains of corpses they would have to pile up in order to realize their dreams. They are all animated by the unrestrained and unappeasable will to power.

To the extent that we endow the state with power, we invariably create the opportunity for those who wish to acquire and abuse power to do evil. You may recall that a politician once said that, "... a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have." The greatest tragedies in recent history have come about in this manner. In the last century alone, more than 260 million people - say it again: more than 260 million people - unarmed, non-combatant civilians - were murdered by those exercising the power of the state. They were starved, gassed, tortured, shot, impaled, burned alive, frozen to death, hacked apart with hoes, axes and machetes - a litany of brutality and atrocity beyond human imagination. Hundreds of millions more lived their lives enslaved, impoverished and in despair. No few of the survivors may have come to envy the dead.

Virtually without exception, these cruel and murderous regimes have been - and continue to be - collectivist totalitarian autocracies of one sort or another. The crimes and the horrors of collectivism in all its forms - socialism, communism, national socialism, fascism - have been demonstrated beyond dispute by their murderous trajectory through history and the ruin, slaughter, and untold human misery left in their wake. This is the undeniable and irrefutable truth of our times.

If you try to wrap your mind around the nature and the extent of the murderous results of these totalitarian regimes, you'll soon discover that concepts like genocide and mass murder pale before the reality of historical fact. Professor R. J. Rummel of the University of Hawaii coined the term democide in order to give us a framework to understand nature and the scope of the worst slaughters of the 20th century. Rummel offers these definitions:

Genocide: among other things, the killing of people by a government because of their indelible group membership (race, ethnicity, religion, language).

Politicide: the murder of any person or people by a government because of their politics or for political purposes.

Mass Murder: the indiscriminate killing of any person or people by a government.

Democide: The murder of any person or people by a government, including genocide, politicide, and mass murder.

As Professor Rummel has shown in Death by Government, democide has been committed in the name of many causes, beliefs and ideologies. Historically, the slaughter of entire populations has been a matter of national, racial, cultural, religious and political policy. But democide is seldom aimed at an individual. It is always the group that is the target. Democide is possible only where individuals have been defined in terms of a group identity. Where this is not the case, mass violence is virtually unknown.

No one wages war on humanity in the name of individualism - R. J. Rummel

We now live in a nation where policies and politics of the 'progressive', Gramscian Left have been formulated expressly to promulgate class and gender warfare, ignorance, passivity, racial division, poverty, envy, and hatred of the good for being good. It is the prerequisite for the acquisition and exercise of unlimited authority and power. It is, in fact, precisely the outcome desired by Gramscian Marxists who now comprise our cultural elite. They are the heirs of those who had had previously helped unravel the moral and philosophical fabric of traditional Christian Europe, creating the frightful void that communism, socialism, national socialism and fascism would fill.Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, writing of the influence of the Left on American foreign policy, referred to the influx of 1914 -1918 émigrés whose ranks were swollen during World War II -

"And, as pointed out earlier, the majority of those belonged to the leftist camp and were soon intimately tied to the American Left. More often than not, these men had previously helped undermine the fabric of traditional Christian Europe, creating the frightful void that communism, socialism, and later National Socialism would fill. Deserted altars are inhabited by demons.

History is very clear as to precisely what these civilizationalunderminers have in store for the rest of us. What demons inhabit our empty altars?What should worry us most is that the majority of our fellow citizens openly applaud this same course  whether they know it or not. The rest of us sanction it by our silence and inaction  and that is the silence of the damned.

Yet, for anyone who cares and dares to look closely, the evidence is overwhelming and incontrovertible: the evils and horrors that arise from the abuse of power far outweigh whatever good that power might achieve. Accordingly, any attempt at achieving positive cultural and societal change without risk to the right of the individual to his life, liberty and private property cannot proceed until the authoritarian power of the state has been de-fanged, muzzled, shackled and cast back into a constitutional prison.

Power seldom goes unabused. There are, have been, and will always be those willing to commit such monstrous crimes. If they refrain from doing so it is only because they lack the opportunity and are suitably constrained by the rule of law backed by men who will enforce it. When the opportunity arises, or when the power-lusters can create the opportunity, they never fail to step up and seize the moment. As Rummel has said, "Power kills; absolute power kills absolutely." In this nation and at the beginning of the 21st century, the face of evil is defined best by those who seek that adulterine power to control and destroy and by those who assist, applaud and enable them.

Perhaps you've seen the well-meaning, ignorant appeasers and applauders - individuals who operate upon the basis of whim and emotion and who don't care to consider the consequences of their actions and beliefs. You've seen their faces in the German newsreels of the '30s and '40s. You've seen them at the Democratic and Republican conventions of the last few decades. They've all signed up for the 'program', and in a particularly tenacious species of denial, they've mapped their own personal versions of intellectual bankruptcy and moral and ethical squalor onto the rhetoric and practice of tyranny. But don't pity them at all. We all know the fate of their German counterparts after the fall of the old Weimar Republic: how many were devoured by the same beast they whelped into the world with their ignorant approval and applause?

Be wary of the haters of mankind who've mapped their own insecurity, self-loathing and sense of inferiority onto the rest of the human race. They are merely another species of willing participant in the bonfires of human sacrifice. Their view of the world and those who inhabit it are colored in terms of spite and envy. These are the ones who've looked into the mirror that others' success and achievements present. Rather than take the challenge to raise their own state of being, they choose instead to shatter the mirror in a fit of pique and resentment simply because they don't like what they see in the reflection of their own souls. Rather than achieve, they seek to destroy. The urge to destroy what they cannot understand or rule becomes their raison d'etre and their governing passion. This type has always found ready employment in the service of their new masters - for a time. But the sacrificial bonfires burn for them as well.

Consider the cynical and knowing apologists for tyranny and atrocity, sitting behind easy grins, excusing the worst sort of depravity and corruption with a wink and a smirk, secure in their faith that they are the new nomenklatura and are thus exempt from the 'solutions' to messy problems represented by those of us who would resist the idea that our lives are not someone else's property.

Finally, we come to the power-lusters themselves - the so-called 'progressive' elites. These individuals are often driven by a profound self-hatred which they direct outwards and project onto humanity in general. Their own self-loathing drives their passion to rule and to subjugate and to destroy, thus opening the door to the commission and justification of the most unimaginable of atrocities and crimes against God, man, nature, justice and reason. Another species of power-luster seeks to impose their own overweening sense of moral rectitude upon a resisting and supposedly ignorant public. C. S. Lewis, writing in God in the Dock eloquently warned us about this last type:

"Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the 'good' of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Eric Hoffer, noted American philosopher, grants us another perspective:

"It has often been said that power corrupts. But it is perhaps equally important to realize that weakness, too, corrupts. Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many. Hatred, malice, rudeness, intolerance, and suspicion are the faults of weakness. The resentment of the weak does not spring from any injustice done to them but from their sense of inadequacy and impotence. We cannot win the weak by sharing our wealth with them. They feel our generosity as oppression."

This is how a long, dark age begins. An age of horror and human sacrifice. Never underestimate the sheer impatience and hubris of the radical utopian 'reformers' who seek nothing less than dominion over every sphere of human thought and endeavor. Remember, these monsters want to reshape Man in their image and according to their ideals no matter what the cost. There's no room in their scheme of things for those who would disagree. Those of us with even a modest knowledge of history and understanding of human nature know where that mindset took humanity in the last century. It's where we're headed now, and we are headed for Hell on earth.

The time is coming when we must either begin the "long march" back through the institutions to reclaim them and to restore the principles of freedom and human dignity to their rightful place, or we must separate from the killers without conscience and those who condone them. My own world-view is contradictory to, and irreconcilable with, that of the criminal totalitarians - the heirs and disciples of Machiavelli, Marx, Gramsci and Alinsky - who promote the politics of envy and victimization, and whose goal is the destruction of our culture and institutions.

We cannot co-exist in the same society with such monsters.

"The great misfortune of the twentieth Century is to have been the one in which the ideal of liberty was harnessed to the service of tyranny, the ideal of equality to the service of privilege, and all the aspirations and social forces included under the label of the "Left" enrolled in the service of impoverishment and enslavement. This immense imposture has falsified most of this century, partly through the faults of some of its greatest intellectuals. It has corrupted the language and action of politics down to tiny details of vocabulary, it has inverted the sense of morality and enthroned falsehood in the very center of human thought."Jean Francois-Revel, The Flight From Truth: The Reign of Deceit in the Age of Information - 1991, Random House

There seems to be a sort of 'virtual secession' is underway even as we speak. It usually begins when, one by one, we arrive at the same ideas that I have summarized so far. It's the understanding and acceptance of the fact that we can't 'just all get along' as a certain Mr. R King once suggested. We're well past that. We're well past the point of reasoned debate, appeasement or compromise. Those who feel they have the right to dictate the terms of existence to everyone else are on a deadly collision course with those of us who understand that no such 'right' exists. The history of the 20th century stands in mute witness to the brutal tragedy of appeasement and the folly of compromise with totalitarian monsters. We are in fact at war, realize it or not, like it or not. At the most fundamental level, that war is being waged not so much for control of our economic lives - although that is certainly part of it - but for the hearts and minds of our children. The battlefields are: popular culture, our public schools, our institutions of higher learning, our churches and even our homes. The casualties are your kids' intellectual and spiritual sovereignty - their inner life and their freedom.

A bold conjecture: that we will descend into a Balkanized nightmare of chaos and destruction as the entitled classes, egged on by the elites, try to cash those very bad checks that liberal socialists and their 'change agent' stooges have written for years and handed out in our schools, churches, culture and inner cities. Those checks - the wages of the sins of class hatred, gender warfare, phony self-esteem and racial division are going to bounce sky high when the goodies they've promised aren't forthcoming. It's the price many of us will pay for both cheering and applauding the transformation of this society into a mob of cannibals and looters, or for simply standing silently by in de facto approval while it happened under our very noses. Some of the fence-sitters, applauders and appeasers may actually understand this and regret their choices in their last few moments as they helplessly watch the mindless mobs their very bad ideas have enabled rape and slaughter their families by the light of their burning homes.

Open warfare in this country is inevitable because there is no reconciliation possible with those who claim that your life simply does not belong to you. You cannot make peace with those who demand not only your economic submission, but your intellectual and spiritual surrender as well. The price of surrender has been and always will be more than anyone of reason and good will can ever care to pay. As Sidney Hook once wrote:

"Those who say that life is worth living at any cost have written for themselves an epitaph of infamy, for there is no cause and no person they would not betray to stay alive..."

I fully expect that our virtual secession will break out into the open in approximately the same time frame that those bouncing checks drawn on the banks of envy and phony self-esteem reach critical mass - any time from right now to another 8-10 years. There will be no turning back once this starts, and the cost in lives and property will be truly staggering. There is absolutely no guarantee that we will ever be able to recover from such a scenario. But then, and only then can we successfully engage in our own 'long march' back towards a society where human dignity and freedom aren't mere bagatelles to bartered away for a mess of liberal socialist pottage, but are fundamental values worth living, striving, fighting - and dying for.

There are many of us, and I include myself among them, who constitute an entirely different class of humanity than these killers without conscience and their enablers. We are neither interested in power nor its abuse. We are satisfied to live our lives in peace with ourselves and with others, and we derive great satisfaction in seeing others enjoy life as we do. We believe that our lives and our minds are sovereign, and that the fruits of our labors are not forfeit to the first thug who demands them at the point of a gun. We are never the initiators of violence. We judge others solely by their competence and by their character.

The final first-principles question is this: To whom does the world belong? Does it belong to those of us who wish to live free of coercion or to the killers without conscience? Does it belong to those who uphold man's life as the standard of their values, or those who uphold the standard of death?

Can those of us who are passionately committed to the ideals of life, liberty, and the sovereign state of the individual hope to persist in the face of such an inevitable tragedy? Our one hope is that this pack of snarling communist dogs will turn upon themselves and consume one another before they have time to get to the rest of us. Those of us with the wisdom to prepare and the courage to step forward and rebuild our uniquely American civilization after the fall of this republic are our best and only hope for a decent and humane civilization.

I conclude with a quote from G. Warren Nutter, the late, great University of Virginia economist and proponent of liberty:

"The greatness of a society does not come from its monuments but from the kind of people it produces. Justice, responsibility, and humanity - these are the qualities of greatness in a people. Only the humane can remain free, and only the free can remain humane..."

Sunstein’s an architect, but the call to let the hammer drop won’t be his. The onlt cost-benefit anaylsis these monsters care about concerns who is left to rule from atop a heap of rubble and corpses.

A new feudalism (or worse) and a world lit only by fire will suit them just fine as long as they they think that they will be the ones in the high castle. Most of us dead. The rest of us in chains. That’s their cost-benefit analysis.

101
posted on 06/06/2010 12:14:45 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

I trust you’ve had a chance to read Dr. Peck’s book ... there really is evil in the world and it resides in and acts through people, because it is a spiritual disease and only humans—on this planet—have a spirit in their soul of life.

106
posted on 06/06/2010 3:19:41 PM PDT
by MHGinTN
(Obots, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)

Sunsteins an architect, but the call to let the hammer drop wont be his. The onlt cost-benefit anaylsis these monsters care about concerns who is left to rule from atop a heap of rubble and corpses.

A new feudalism (or worse) and a world lit only by fire will suit them just fine as long as they they think that they will be the ones in the high castle. Most of us dead. The rest of us in chains. Thats their cost-benefit analysis.

ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.

And they think their city sized lavish bunkers will insure such.

God has some surprises in store for those bunkers.

108
posted on 06/06/2010 3:35:35 PM PDT
by Quix
(THE PLAN of the Bosses: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/religion/2519352/posts?page=2#2)

The mindset Sunstein ascribes to has stated that the planet should have no more than 1 billion people, preferrably less. The impulse driving these abstards is demonic in origin. But they absolutely believe they are kindness personified, only concerne3d about saving the planet. They are evil incarnate ... mister evil has no human body, so humans have to give themselves over to his use, as this bunch of evil-serving bastards are doing.

109
posted on 06/07/2010 7:15:03 AM PDT
by MHGinTN
(Obots, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)

Noumenon, Thank you very much for sharing this brilliant piece with us, it is much appreciated. I also have enjoyed your recent "An Extremist Manifesto" piece and have shared it with others (with attribution). The truth can be very "troubling" to behold, but our only hope is that more and more people are exposed to it (and embrace it) everyday.

111
posted on 06/07/2010 4:04:41 PM PDT
by zzeeman
(Fighting to not be the amongst the last generation to enjoy Freedom & Liberty!)

...and that they would move their takeover efforts to the non-elective side of the balance sheet?

I believe that you are correct, and that much of this is going on already. I believe that it was well understood that one (or both) houses would be sure to lose the Democrat majority during this November's election cycle. (Not that anyone should expect any miraculous level of "corrective action" should (RINO) Republicans gain control. Elect enough Constitutional Conservatives, that is a different story!)

If anyone looks at the recent activity of any/all of the extra-Constitutional federal agencies (that have been created and expanded by both (R) and (D) administrations), you can see a beehive of activity focused on eliminating/diminishing our Liberties and Freedom, and ramping up the levels and force of tyranny. I refer to the FTC, FCC, EPA, etc. Much of the activity of these groups has been posted about here on FR (but sadly not many other places). These unaccountable bureaucrats in these agencies are working overtime to destroy this country. What is even worse in many cases, these entities have their own administrative judicial arms and courts that are defined to be the only relevant jurisdiction for grievances and appeals. What regime needs the Legislative and Judicial branches to continually toe the line when they can effectively rule by agency fiat?

None of this is new, been going on for far to long, but it looks like the pace is picking up rapidly. And for the most part, none of this activity is ever widely publicized until it is too late. At most, the state controlled media will make a brief mention of larger activity, and of course it is always spun in glowing terms describing how much better off we will all be once these "new rules" crack down on the {fill in the targeted villain}.

112
posted on 06/07/2010 4:23:56 PM PDT
by zzeeman
(Fighting to not be the amongst the last generation to enjoy Freedom & Liberty!)

They are all driven by that insatiable will to power, that unappeasable appetite to control and enslave mankind. They are monsters, all of them. Monsters.

As you point out here and in your main article, that will to power is insatiable. I will acknowledge that I have been very naive in my understanding and acceptance of this fact, considering that I am in my early 50s and am just waking up to these realities. I struggled for quite some time trying to understand how any man could have this level of evil desire. I was mistaken in that I assumed that "everyone was like everyone else," in that if I couldn't find it within myself to even comprehend that level of desire for control and power, I couldn't see how anyone else could.

As a more concrete example, since I was a child I could never conceive of how any man could feel comfortable owning another man as a slave, as property. I knew that it had happened very often since the beginning of recorded history, and unfortunately continues to the present. But I guess that I took an ignorant view that led me to believe that it must be more of a societal or cultural ill, i.e., the slave-owners only held slaves since that is what the larger society deemed as lawful/proper. In my ignorance I chose to blame the "larger whole" for the corruption of the individual, rather than assign the blame directly to the individual. Why? I don't know. Perhaps it was just a naive way of avoiding the ugly fact that some men are indeed evil? Maybe it was because I didn't want to believe that it could also be true for me if it was true for others, since I was operating under that mistaken belief that we were indeed "all alike" at the core.

I mistakenly assumed that the primary motivation of the evil I saw around me was purely (material) greed. In my ignorant model it did go a fair distance in explaining the results of what I saw around me. I also mistakenly assumed that their was some finite level for that (material) greed that would eventually be sated, at least enough to stop the drive for total destruction and domination. Perhaps there is for some, or even many? I don't know. But the key point that I have been missing, is that there is another drive, the purely evil lust for domination and control. I am not exactly sure why (since I haven't had enough time to both think it through and more properly educate myself), but my gut sense tells me that this drive is far stronger (than greed for the material) in those that are under its evil spell, and that it is one that is less easily (if ever) sated by incremental gain. It appears to be the one that is totally insatiable in the worst cases of afflication.

114
posted on 06/07/2010 4:51:48 PM PDT
by zzeeman
(Fighting to not be the amongst the last generation to enjoy Freedom & Liberty!)

To your last 2 questions: - for me, I am in the process of educating myself so that I can be of some use in educating others around me. I have a lot of learning to do (and not a lot of time) so I am working double-time on that. - I am in the process of steeling my resolve and completely internalizing the facts that I am finally coming to grips with. In short, I am finally beginning to understand the meaning (including its ultimate beautiful truth and absolute relevance to the present) of:

"It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! -- Patrick Henry, March 23, 1775

115
posted on 06/07/2010 5:09:39 PM PDT
by zzeeman
(Fighting to not be the amongst the last generation to enjoy Freedom & Liberty!)

To reply to this post and your aearlier one - The trouble as I see it, is that our sheltered existence has led us to shy away from a frank look and an unflinching comprehansion of the darker side of human nature. We simply don't want to believe it. As Peikoff has said in his Ominous Parallels it was not so much a matter of believing the Big Lie - it was the refusal to accept the Incredible Truth that led so many to walk onto the Third Reich rail cars.

The brutality of man is an age-old story. But of late, we have become disconnected from it here in America. Our pampered existence has led us into a virtual Disneyland of disbelief. But who can blame people for not wanting to belive this stuf?/ Who wants to?

Moreover, most of us don't think in terms of the pursuit of power over others. As I said in the essay, for some, absolute power is more compelling, more addictive than any drug. We can't understand that mindset because we just don't operate that way. Our moreal and ethical sensibilites are anchored in our belief in, and personal relationship with our Creator. Ujnlike the power -lusters, we have a moral compass. They don't. And they despise those of us who do. Think about it: all of the current cultural rage against and sneering at those they label 'goody two-shoes. Men of honor and simple human dignity are the sneering punch lines to liberal party jokes.

"Freedom is not synonymous with an easy life. ... There are many difficult things about freedom: It does not give you safety, it creates moral dilemmas for you; it requires self-discipline; it imposes great responsibilities; but such is the nature of Man and in such consists his glory and salvation."

Never give up.

116
posted on 06/08/2010 4:30:34 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

The brutality of man is an age-old story. But of late, we have become disconnected from it here in America. Our pampered existence has led us into a virtual Disneyland of disbelief. But who can blame people for not wanting to belive this stuf?/ Who wants to?

Absolutely. I have to say that I had been a bit "stunned" by the reaction of almost all of my contemporaries (i.e., folks born in the late 40s or 50s) when I try to engage them in any conversations of substance on topics such as these (including the state of the economy, political realities, or history). I have given much thought to the "why" aspect of it, considering the apparent level of "intellect" and/or education and the overall "successful" stations in life that these people have reached. It is clear to me that the overall level of comfort and affluence that our country has enjoyed for decades has created a very self-absorbed and utterly complacent populace.

The TRUTH is too distasteful, difficult, and "upsetting" to comprehend. It is also too "large," in that we aren't talking about a few policies that may need to adjusted, or a few laws that need review and modification. It also seems "so un-American" to many because a great deal of our population (especially anyone 50 and upward) just can't accept the fact that this can ever happen in America. We have been falsely indoctrinated to believe that the government could never be "that bad" and will always "be there to protect us" in the end. These are the people that should have enough knowledge and understanding to know better. People in their 40s and upward should have been exposed to a bit more of the "truth" of our history and should have been less indoctrinated than those that are younger. But our culture and overall comfort have softened these abilities that should be present.

Younger people have a different sort of problem in coming to grips with this. As a whole, people in their 30s and younger that have been fully indoctrinated in government schools have less of the actual facts available (unless they actively seek it out now) and far less comprehension and processing skills (by design). Also working against them is the fact of their youth, i.e., what person just starting out in their adult life (still hoping at some point to marry, have a family of their own, and "prosper" to some degree, at least at some point) wants to face the dark reality of this TRUTH? It is very easy to understand why the LIE is so appealing, for it falsely offers them "everything" at no cost.

Because of the above, amongst other factors not mentioned, it is a struggle of immense proportions to gain an open mind from our populace as a whole. I certainly don't intend to be overly pessimistic or "gloomy" here, just attempting to speak truthfully. If we are to be effective to any useful degree, these are the facts that we must accept. And above all, fully embrace your closing comment:

Never give up.

118
posted on 06/09/2010 3:19:11 PM PDT
by zzeeman
(Fighting to not be the amongst the last generation to enjoy Freedom & Liberty!)

If you really want to stretch and possibly blow your mind, check out Carrol Quigley's Tragedy and Hope - A History of the World in our time. In fact, buy it while you can. Mine's heavily marked and tabbed, because damn near every page is packed with a historical perspective I've seen nowhere else.

Now, Quigley's best characterized as an authoritarian paternalist, but his reading of history and cultures is breathtaking. He is mostly correct, aside from his over-the-top hatred for this country's 'right wing'. And that doesn't really emerge until he gets to the end of his historical journey. Combine what you now know with his observations and, well... You won't look at things the same way.

As for the youth of today. A lot of them won't even understand what's happening to them - even while it's hapepning. They'll die stupid and afraid. You mentioned, what person just starting out in their adult life (still hoping at some point to marry, have a family of their own, and "prosper" to some degree, at least at some point)... The problem is for many young people, even these aspirations are lost to them. Marriage? Family? Again, sneering punch lines to filthy liberal party jokes. Or an episode of Family Guy if you can stand to watch one. It's an education, believe me. With what does one fill a shrieking moral void? I think we know.

But we should all take hope from the fact that homeschooling and concerned parents are turning out alive, alert and aware young people. They are the hope of the restored Republic.

119
posted on 06/09/2010 3:48:54 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

True. In The Road to Serfdom, the chapter "How the Worst Get on Top" lays it out. Interesting that Hayek's book has hit #1 on Amazon since Glen Beck menationed it. It's a real eye-opener for those who have managed to live this far without reading it.

Should be mandatory reading in all school systems. I won't hold my breath on that one, though.

123
posted on 06/12/2010 7:26:03 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

Thanks. I’m working on a revised version of it that has the potential for turning into a book. Trying for better flow of ideas and logic. There’s a wealth of material that begs for inclusion. Going to take a while...

124
posted on 06/12/2010 7:28:50 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

If we have learned anything at all from the sad and sorry history of the previous century, it is this: whenever and wherever a government assumes the power to violate your fundamental rights to life and liberty, those who wish to strip you of your rights and claim your life as the property of the state will sooner or later gain control of the apparatus of the state. And they will use it, as I have noted above, without restraint or moral considerations of any kind. Regardless of the scope of that authority, they will exercise it to its fullest extent. If that authority encompasses the power to kill hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people, sooner or later, these killers without conscience will make the fullest and most horrible use of it. The history of the 20th century bears stark and irrefutable witness to this fact. The record is crystal clear in this regard: 'state actors' will use and abuse whatever power and authority they have, to whatever extent they can, and they will actively seek the means and the opportunity to do so.

Outstanding writing and content, Noumenon. Thanks for posting it.

"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position."George Washington - Farewell Address, September 17, 1796, Ref: George Washington: A Collection, W.B. Allen, ed. (521)

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force; like fire, a troublesome servant and a fearful master. Never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action."George Washington - : in a speech of January 7, 1790

Cordially,

126
posted on 06/14/2010 6:09:36 AM PDT
by Diamond
(He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people,)

Just finished Fernando’s book. Very, very interesting. We’re not exactly Argentina in a number of cultural particulars, but there was enough there for me to re-think a few things.

Trouble is, anything can happen here. Anything. Too many variables. Too many fault lines. Events can and will take on a life of their own. We have the makings of some serious chaos brewing here. A shattered mirror.

How’d that old Creedence Clearwater song go? “There’s a bad moon on the rise...”

128
posted on 06/21/2010 6:36:08 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

I think it’ll be a LOT worse here than in Argentina. They walked back from the brink, I don’t think we will. They have a basically European, Catholic society. Even with class divisions, more binds them than not. Here, we have the Bosnia problem in many areas: three ethnic groups with a lot of simmering hatred.

While I don't pretend to be an expert on Argentine history it occurs to me that they're a much more homogenous society than 'we' are. They have a several hundred year history of Catholocism, and not much of a history of individual freedom. This is no slam against the Argentine people, simply an observation.

"We" are a very diverse population spread across an area much, much larger than Argentina. Our inner city, welfare acustomed population has almost nothing in common with the productive class. And I mean almost nothing including language.

Have either of you ever listened to some of the some of what some people try to pass off as English? I live just the next county over and for the life of me I can't figure out more than about every third word.

How do you think they're going to behave when the system finally breaks down? They're going to come boiling out of those cities with a raging sense of entitlement in their heads and guns in their hands.

And it's not necessarily a racial thing. I have folks of various hues on my block that I would trust at my back any day of the week under almost any circumstances.

Variables? Yep. Wheels within wheels....

All I can do is make sure that me and mine are as prepared as possible with the resources that we've put together with our own hands. God will do what He will and we can't worry about that.

God helps those who help themselves, luck favors the prepared, and fortune favors the bold. That's the way we look at things for better or worse.

I don't see what else we can do.

Good luck to you both.

130
posted on 06/21/2010 8:47:31 PM PDT
by Lurker
(The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)

I fear that you are correct. I’ll come back to that shattered mirror metaphor. It’ll be any individual or group with an axe to grind. Combined with the savagery borne of desperation - there’ll be no lack of that to go around. The Left has worked for years to dissolve the common bonds of trust and the social contract / glue that had worked to keep this nation together for so long. Now, they have succeeded. Talk about reaping the whirlwind...

135
posted on 06/22/2010 10:26:37 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

They're going to come boiling out of those cities with a raging sense of entitlement in their heads and guns in their hands.

That they will. And it won't take long if the one hour meltdown is even remotely accurate. Eve naround here. there's a lot of dead weight in Coeur d'Alene and the surrounding area. There there's Spokane. Folks unprepared and without a clue. A significant number of folks here in northern Idaho depend on that government check.

When it grinds to a halt, even for a few days, they'll be madder than a pack of raccoons that you just stopped feeding.

136
posted on 06/22/2010 10:35:48 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

Thank you for the kind words. I do believe that I’m on to something. This essay is turning into a book, and will cover much more. It is curious to me that so many authors dance around the role that the Will to Power plays in animating history’s worst tyrants and mass murderers.

It is also vital that we recognize and destroy those who seek that same adulterine power. The human race can’t stand much more of this and still call itself human.

140
posted on 06/30/2010 10:32:27 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

Wow, if you can keep up that level of pith throughout a hard cover you’ll gain fame as one of the greatest authors of conservative social commentary. It is sort of a psychoanalysis of political motivation (take that as a compliment, even if psychoanalysis in the clinical sense is tarnished). Another FReeper suggested submitting this essay to a periodical? Have you done that? Seems like a appropriate stepping stone. Glad to have you in the Great Inland Northwest (I think that’s where you are).

About the book. I hardly even mentioned Antonio Gramsci in this essay. I’ve got an entire chapter with the working title, “Like Gramsci’s Ghost...,” an obvious play on the recurring ghost of Banquo from Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Gramsci never lived to witness the success of his memes and their destructive power. But he would have nodded his ghostly head in warm approval of how far his ideas and his methods have brought us to the edge of our own civilization’s destruction.

It’s coming together slowly. Btu it’s getting there. How it will be received - who knows? I’m not a scholar, per se, just an observer.

144
posted on 06/30/2010 3:58:22 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

"He [Albert Camus] had noticed a modern impulse to rebel, which had come out of the French Revolution and the nineteenth century and had very quickly, in the name of an ideal, mutated into a cult of death. And the ideal was always the same, though each movement gave it a different name. It was not skepticism and doubt. It was the ideal of submission." Paul Berman - Terror and Liberalism p46

And thus, the tyranny of the weak...

146
posted on 07/10/2010 10:34:40 AM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. Robert A. Heinlein

I'd go one step further than Heinlein and agree with Camus I think. There is a large percentage of the human population who simply want to be told what and what not to do. They're a real danger. Because as we all know there's another sub-set of humanity that is very, very willing to step into the role of Controller.

147
posted on 07/10/2010 11:53:03 AM PDT
by Lurker
(The avalanche has begun. The pebbles no longer have a vote.)

I've just completed a re-read of Jamie Glazov's United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror, and the first few chapters, particularly the first three chapters, are still resonating strongly in my mind. Those who have linked their entire raison d'etre to the doctrines of the Left - the implicit hatred of humankind, the immanentist view of history that demands the destruction of everything ("burn the old world to reveal the new one," as one anarchist protesters sign read) have been willing to surrender their own lives as well. It's the final destination of those whose personal failures have left them only with a desire to submerge themselves in the totalist whole, surrendering their individuality - and ultimately their lives - to that utopian dream. Which those of us who have even the remotest conenction with reality understand that is a monstrous and evil nightmare.

So, the Will to Power can only succeed when there are enough useful idiots willing to surrender themselves to it. And too few willing to resist it. Otherwise, the monsters have no chance.

148
posted on 07/12/2010 4:20:20 PM PDT
by Noumenon
("Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed, that he has grown so great?" - Julius Caesar)

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